The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-04-08
BEECHER'S ADVICE TO PARENTS.
Children should Not 60 ont Alone nj
Nighttime value Of 81 Pure
Childhood.

Ward Beecher, which he supplied to metro
politan newspapers, contained some yalu-
able practical advice to parents. We make
the following extracts from it:
The practice of allowing children to go
out at night to find their own companions
and their own places of amusement may
leave one in twenty unscathcd and without
danger; but | think that nineteen out of
twenty fall down wounded or destroyed.
There may be things that it is best that
you should do for your children, though
you would not do them for yourselves, but
they ought not to go anywhere at night,
to see sights, or to take pleasure, unless
you can go with them, until they are grown
to mans estate and their habits are form
ed. And nothing is more certain than to
grant the child liberty to 60 outside of the
parental roof ana its restraints in the dark
ness of night is bad, and only bad, and that
continually.
Do not suppose child is hurt only when
he is broken down. 1t does not require
that child should be broken down to be
made useless by his exposures to tempta-
ton. | aver that there are many things
which no man can learn without being
damaged by them all his life long. There
are many thoughts which ought never to
find passage through mans brain. As
an eel, if he were to wriggle across your
carpet, would leave a slime which no
brush could take off, so there are many
things which no person can know and ever
recover from the knowledge of.
If want to make the destruction of a
child sure, | would give him unmatched
liberty after dark. You cannot do a thing
that will be so nearly guarantee of a
ehild's damnation as to let him have the
liberty of the streets at night.
do not believe in bringing up the young
TO know life, as it is said | should just as
soon think OF bringing up child by cut
ting some of The cords of his body and
decorating his nerves and soaring and
tattooing him and making an Indian of him
outright as an element of beauty, as |
should think OF developing his manhood
by bringing him up TO see life-to see its
abeminable lusts, to see its hideous incar-
nations of wit, to see its Internal wicked
ness, to see its extravagant and degrading
scenes, to see its miserable earnalities, to
see its imaginations set ON fire of hell, to
see all those temptations and delusions
which lead to perdition.
Nobody gets over the sight of these
things. They who see them always carry
scars. They are burned And though
they live, they live as men that have been
burned. The scar remains. And to let
the young go out where evil appears,
where the frequenter of dens of iniquity
can come within their reach, 10 let them
go where the young gather to cheer with
bad wit, to let them 90 where they will be
exposed to such temptation-why, a parent
is insane that will do it. To say "a child
must be hardened, he has to get tough
somehow, and you may as well put him in
the vat and let him tan'-is that family
education? Is that Christian nurture and
adm oniton of the Lord?
! thank God for two things-yes, for
thousand; but for two among many. First,
that was born and bred in the country,
OF parents that gave me sound constitu-
ton and noble example. never can pay
back what got from my parents. If
were to raise monument of gold higher
than heaven it would be 10 expression Of
the debt of gratitude which owe to them,
for that which they increasingly gave, by
the heritage of their body and the heritage
of their souls, to me. But next to that |
am thankful that | was brought up in cir
cumstances where | never became ac-
quainted with wickedness. | know great
deal about it; for If hear man say a,
know the whole alphabet of that mans
life, by which can imagine all the rest.
If see a single limb, l have the physiolo
gist's talent by which | know the whole
structure.
But | never became acquainted with
wickedness when l was young by coming
in contact with it. never was sullied in
act, nor in thought, nor in feeling, when !
was young. I grew up as pure as woman.
And cannot express to God the thanks
which l owe to my mother, and to my
father, and to the great household of sisters
and brothers among whom | lived. And
the secondary know ledge of these wicked
things, which have gained in later life in
a professional way, gained under such
guards as was not harmful to me.
TO all husbands and wives whom these
written words may reach, | say, if you
have children, bring them up purely.
Bring them up with sensitive delicacy.
Bring them up so that they shall not know
the wickedness that is known, unfortu-
nately, by the greater number of men.
And il there are children that are some
times impatient of parental restraint, let me
say to them, you do not know what tempta-
ton you are under, and if held back by your
mother, if held back by your father you
shall escape the knowledge of the wicked
ness that is in the world, You will have &C.
casion, by and by, to thank God for that,
more than for silver or for gold or for
houses or for lands.
Keep yenr children at home nights.
There is many sod that lies over the
child whose downfall began BY yagrancy